The Challenge To Grow

Luke 13:18-19
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2008 Harold Dinsmore

             Have you ever held a mustard seed in your hand?  Have you ever studied it and really come to an understanding of its power?  It you haven’t I want to provide you an opportunity this morning to get to know a mustard seed.  (Have ushers pass out trays containing mustard seed).  Now as the ushers are passing around the mustard seeds I want you to observe the seed.  Look at it closely and note its size, its texture, its weight and its mass.

               Now once you have observed the mustard seed, hold it in your right hand in front of your eyes so you can see it as I read this morning’s passage.  “Then said he, What is the kingdom of God like?  And to what shall I compare it?  It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and became a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.”

               What in the world is Jesus trying to teach us in this passage?  The kingdom is like a seed that grows into a tree?  Where is the emphasis?  The seed?  The growth of the tree?  And what about the birds that lived among the branches? 

               I believe that the Lord is giving us several principles for the church and how it is to function and expand.  Why?  Because the kingdom is now.  It all comes down to a matter of faith.  Matthew 17:20 Jesus says, “Because you have so little faith.  I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you.”